Friday the 13th (1980) Movie Review

Friday the 13th (1980) is a low budget horror/slasher film distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Sean S. Cunningham and written by Victor Miller. It got mixed reviews from critics but was a box office hit, exceeding its budget of $550,000. It spawned several sequels and is known for being the start of the Friday the 13th franchise. The franchise has gotten a strong cult fan base among horror fans despite the movies not being critical hits, and the character Jason Voorhees has become a horror icon. I watched these movies for the first time in 2010, when I was 17 years old, and they're what got me into the horror genre.

There's not a lot to say about this without spoiling it, so I'll do the best I can. The original Friday the 13th movie focuses on a group of camp counselors in Camp Crystal Lake which is nicknamed "Camp Blood" due to tragic events occurring at that camp. A young boy had previously drowned in the lake years prior, and two teenagers were massacred two years after that. Since then, people have been convinced that the camp has a death curse. The counselors get murdered one by one by an unknown killer, and the killer's identity is revealed by the end of the movie. That's about the gist of it.

We've got a set of different characters/victims. There is Steve Christy, the leader of the camp counselors, and there's Alice (Adrienne King), the main protagonist. Alice is an aspiring artist hired as a camp counselor, and she's the one who survives throughout the massacre. Then there's Bill, Marcie, Brenda, Jack (Kevin Bacon), Ned and Annie. There's also Crazy Ralph, the local eccentric who claims to be a messenger of God and tries to warn people that if they go to "Camp Blood", they're doomed.

I think the original Friday the 13th (1980) was a brilliantly well-crafted slasher flick, and as far as low budget horror goes, it was quite impressive. It features established characters/victims and chilling/unsettling atmosphere with mystery and suspense. Throughout the movie you don’t even see the killer (except the hands) and you don’t even know who the killer is until the end. That’s how you do a slasher movie. I like to think of this as a cross between Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) and John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978). 

The second movie, Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) carries on this trope to an extent, whilst connecting directly to the first film. This time however, you have a good idea of who the killer is, so it kind of spoils the suspense. It’s still a pretty entertaining slasher flick though. For the rest of the series (except for Part 5), you already know who the killer is from the get-go, so the mystery is pretty much gone. (I’m not saying the killer’s name for a reason, by the way.)

Friday the 13th Part 6 (1986) is arguably considered the fan favorite because it's the smartest one and basically a satire of the franchise as well as the slasher genre. While that movie is enjoyable, I'd say my favorite is still the original. Part 6 and Part 4 are both pretty close up there. Part 8 (1989) was a lame disappointment, but I'll get to that in another video. This one is a bit of a slow burn, but I really like the suspense and the chilling atmosphere (like I mentioned earlier). 

I do think the first Halloween (1978) and Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) films are superior. But for what it is, and given the budget, I think the original Friday the 13th (1980) is a very impressive slasher film, and I'd even go as far as to calling it an underrated horror masterpiece. I highly recommend this one if you're into low budget teen slasher flicks.

I give the original Friday the 13th (1980) a solid 10/10.

So, have you seen the original Friday the 13th (1980)? What did you think? Did you like it? Did you not like it? Did you think it was okay? Let me know in the comments.

You can check out my video review on YouTube:

Okay, now I'm going into spoiler territory, so if you haven't seen the movie, you may want to stop reading right now.

****SPOILER****

If you were to ask who the killer is in Friday the 13th, anyone would probably tell you it's Jason Voorhees. However, in the first movie, the killer is unnamed and pretty much completely hidden throughout the movie except for the hands. In the last 30 minutes, Alice, the final girl is approached by a middle-aged woman who introduces herself as Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer). She appears nice at first, but then she reveals that the boy who drowned was her son Jason. The tragic loss of her son caused Mrs. Voorhees to go insane, and she blamed the counselors and killed them. 

It's implied that she's been killing people who set foot in the camp ever since, thus revealing herself to have been the killer all along. This was a very brilliant twist. I remember seeing this on TV back in 2010 with my mom and Dad. I knew very little about Friday the 13th prior besides the character Jason, and when it got to this twist, my jaw dropped. I didn't see it coming. Anyway, the two have a fight, and Alice decapitates Mrs. Voorhees with a machete (this item of which is a staple in later Friday the 13th films) and escapes on a rowboat. 

Alice wakes up the next morning on the rowboat as the police show up. It seems like everything is going to be okay. But just then Jason, the aforementioned boy who drowned in the lake, is back from the dead and attacks Alice and pulls her into the water. Alice then wakes up in the hospital and tells the nurse and doctors about Jason, but they think she's being crazy. This implies that Jason is still out there, thus ending on an ambiguous note (in typical horror fashion). See THAT is how you do a teen slasher flick, and that's why the original Friday the 13th (1980) is my personal favorite in the series. I think Betsy Palmer did a great job playing the psychotic Mrs. Voorhees.

I'd also like to comment on a couple of things. There's one inconsistency I noticed, where Mrs. Voorhees mentions she's a good friend of the Christys. But earlier on, during Steve's death scene, Steve doesn't seem to recognize the killer. You'd think he'd recognize her face about anywhere considering they go way back. There's also a goof I noticed when Mrs. Voorhees gets Decapitated. If you notice, after she loses her head, her fingers are still moving around. I thought that was kind of weird.

I may eventually get to reviewing the other Friday the 13th movies in greater detail, but for now I just wanted to focus on the first one.

Well, that's my 2 cents on the original Friday the 13th (1980).

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As I post this, the original Friday the 13th (1980) and its sequels aren't streaming for free anywhere, but they're available on digital purchase through Fandango at Home, YouTube, AppleTV and Amazon.